Kastan Denies Firing Shots in Drive-By Slaying

The man accused of pulling the trigger in the drive-by slaying of a 20-year-old Thousand Oaks woman testified Wednesday that he was not the gunman.

Scott M. Kastan, 19, ended almost two hours of testimony in Ventura County Superior Court by saying that co-defendant Patrick H. Strickland, 22, shot Jennifer Jordan on May 31.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn had portrayed Kastan as a vengeful gang member and Strickland as a willing accomplice in the crime.

Kastan testified that he spent most of the afternoon of the shooting drinking beer before Strickland showed up at his front door with an invitation to go on a joy ride to Los Angeles with two women.

Strickland was excited about driving a black BMW belonging to one of the women, Kastan said, but he also insisted that Kastan bring along his mother’s boyfriend’s handgun.

Under questioning from defense attorney James Edward Blatt, Kastan said he assumed that Strickland, a fellow member of the Small Town Hoods, wanted him to bring the gun because “we were going to a pretty bad neighborhood.”

They went to Watts, where Kastan gave the weapon to Strickland, he said. By the time the group returned to Strickland’s Thousand Oaks apartment, they were drunk and the gun had been put underneath the driver’s seat, Kastan testified.

He said Kirstin E. McLuckie, the car’s owner, told Strickland and Kastan that they had to find something to do. After driving aimlessly, they noticed a party on Houston Drive, territory claimed by the Houston Hoods, Kastan testified.

After driving by the house once, McLuckie was persuaded to turn around and pass by again, Kastan said.

Strickland asked McLuckie if he could use the sunroof, Kastan testified.

Seconds later, Strickland was standing up in the moving car and gunshots rang out, Kastan said. “He said he shot into the air. He said he didn’t hit anybody,” Kastan said.

Kastan’s identification of Strickland as the gunman contradicts the testimony of two witnesses earlier this month.

Both witnesses said they were positive that the one who shot the gun was a white man with a thin face and wearing a long black Raiders jacket.

Strickland, a light-skinned black, was wearing an extra-large black Raiders jacket when arrested hours after the shooting, a jacket Kastan says Strickland picked up at home before the shooting.

Strickland and Kastan each modeled two Raiders jackets--one an extra-large parka belonging to Strickland and the other belonging to Kastan--size small--for the jury Wednesday.

Blatt later said in an interview that the jurors could compare the way the jackets looked on each of the defendants to witnesses’ descriptions. Kastan testified that he wore only a white T-shirt on the night of the shooting.

Blatt also showed jurors a video taped by a private detective that showed actors re-enacting the conditions inside the automobile before the shooting. It showed what the driver could have seen in the rear-view mirror and also what witnesses may have seen from the Houston Drive house.

Kastan’s testimony is scheduled to continue this morning.

Both men are charged with first-degree murder and could face sentences of 25 years to life in prison. Kastan is also charged with using a firearm and inflicting great bodily injury on Jordan.